


An Offer of Balance

by thinkatory



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Future Fic, Guilt, Incest, Multi, Sex Magic, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-07-24 20:54:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20020873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkatory/pseuds/thinkatory
Summary: "We offer balance to the Force tonight." Rey's voice quavered. "We experience pain. We experience joy. The balance of existence. Life, death, joy, pain."





	An Offer of Balance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blue_ringed_octopus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_ringed_octopus/gifts).



He slept restlessly in the days after the peace was struck. It wasn't just paranoia that what remained of the rebels might attempt to string him up if he dared close his eyes. It was the look in Rey's eyes each day that they met. He didn't think he had the words to name what he saw, or if he was willing to name it. All he knew was that it knotted his stomach and made him think of her while he rested alone at night, staring at the white wall opposite the large bed that had once been his mother's.

The peace was still uneasy. The rebels had protested immediately when he was treated as the heir to Leia's property, even though he assured them he didn't mean to take her place. The peace wasn't that simple. The peace was bought in the name of balance. He would not wield more power than Rey, and Rey would not wield more power than him.

That was the idea, anyway. It was early in the process, yet; tonight was the third night after he and Rey had come to terms, and three meetings in the hours right after sunrise hadn't borne out much in how to solve the most practical problem.

 _Our people hate each other,_ he'd said.

 _Mine hate you, and yours hate me,_ she'd answered. _We need someone else, Ben. To balance things, and show them the truth._

She had just smiled, and changed the subject to logistics. He remained suspicious that the topic was far from dropped, and puzzled in the soft bed until he finally drifted off to something resembling sleep.

* * *

Morning broke, and he went to meet her at the now usual spot.

"Good morning, Ben," Rey said softly from her spot perched on a stone.

He inclined his head in acknowledgment, and hesitated before going to take a seat next to her. "So," he said. "Did you find what you were looking for? Our tool of balance?"

"I think so." There was steel determination in her eyes, even as she searched his face for something, though he didn't know what. "I need your help."

"I see." He watched her closely, the caution she tried to hide behind a calm exterior, as though she expected him to lash out. "Tell me, Rey."

"We need Luke," Rey said, tone firm. "We need Luke Skywalker back."

Maybe he should've expected it, but the words took him by surprise anyway, and he fought back a horrible storm of emotions, anger tipping into rage overwhelmed by grief and shame most of all. He didn't realize his hands were shaking until Rey took them in her own and held them tightly. They sat in silence like that for a moment while he just tried to breathe and think clearly. The Force couldn't help him, tainted as he was. He was alone, except for Rey.

"There isn't a way," he got out eventually. "To bring him back."

"There is," Rey answered, and squeezed his hands. "We can do this."

He shut his eyes tightly, then nodded his head before he could convince himself out of it. He could feel her watching him, nearly feel her little smile as she did, and he spoke without opening his eyes. "What do we need to do?"

"Wait until nightfall. I'll meet you here with everything we need." She cupped his chin, surprising him with the touch, and his eyes opened. There she was, focused intently on him, resolute. "You must be ready to do whatever is necessary, Ben."

He couldn't look away. "Yes," he said. "I'll be there."

"Good." She dropped her hand into her lap and gave his other hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it. "How are you?"

He had thought killing Sidious had killed Kylo Ren once and for all, death to the old thing that was Kylo Ren, a helmeted relic of a bygone era of Jedi against Sith. What it had left behind was a man without a name, just a purpose.

"I don't know." His tone was even, but not unfriendly.

"Tell me your name." Rey's tone matched his, direct, clear, but soft.

"Rey," he pressed, gaze over the cliffs into the lake below, now.

"I feel it." She followed his gaze. "I feel... something new in you. Even within these last few days."

He exhaled. "I'm not Ben Solo."

"Maybe you can be," she offered after a pause. "You've just lost practice."

" _Rey._ " He started to stand, but she caught his arm. He looked at her, then sank back down onto the stone. "Ben," he spoke aloud.

"Your name is what you make it," Rey said, thoughtful. "Rey from Jakku was nobody until... until I chose to seize my destiny. You did the same. You changed the course of the war. That was not Kylo Ren."

No, it hadn't been Kylo Ren. He frowned.

"Tonight," he said. "Tonight we bring back Skywalker."

"Luke," she said, and when he looked at her she wore a small smile. "Yes."

"Fine." He glanced away again. _Ben._ He felt doubt clinging to him like nettles. "Is there anything we need to discuss in the meantime?"

She sat up a bit straighter. "Yes, of course."

The day's business unfolded. No matter how busy his day was, he couldn't forget what lay ahead.

He could see Luke again.

* * *

The sun was setting as he arrived at the cliffs. Rey was there already with a bag slung over her shoulder, and rose to greet him with a nod. She turned and led him down the hill into a nearby alcove, where she had a fire already stoked and burning.

She turned back to him. "Are you ready?" she checked.

"Yes," he answered after the slightest pause. "Yes. What do we need to do?"

She didn't answer. She set down her bag a few feet from the fire and drew out her staff from behind her back, drawing a long rectangle in the dirt. She tossed it by the bag after and looked to him, extending her hand out to him. He accepted it without, at least, a verbal question.

"He's never left us," Rey said. He so admired the tenacity in her face each time it came. "If we call him... he'll return. I believe that."

"And how exactly do we call him?" His gaze dropped to their linked hands.

She paused. "There are... three steps to this." He nodded to her, and she held more tightly onto his hand as she spoke. "We draw upon the Force. Make our intentions clear."

Despite himself, it made his stomach twist. "Rey."

"Pain, and joy," she pressed on. "The Force, pain, and joy. We ask for him and he comes through."

"Where did you get this information?" So he was deflecting. So what? It was a question he should have asked earlier.

"A reliable source." Rey's mouth set. "You're worried."

"I'm just pointing out – "

"You're worried," she cut him off with, her grip firm on his hand. "About using the Force."

He didn't have a good answer for that, so he just looked away, into the fire. She turned her face to the fire as well, and gestured to it. "It can burn," she said, "but it can provide warmth. It's all about intention, isn't it?"

"Yes." He knew that better than she did, but he supposed he needed reminding. "I haven't. Since Sidious."

"I thought you might." She shook her head. "Trust me, Ben."

He released a short breath, then nodded. Her eyes drifted shut, and he watched her at first, feeling the power rise from around her; only then did he close his eyes and try to think of Luke (though it hurt, more than it had in years and years) and his lessons. _It's there. You don't have to look very hard. Stop straining._

There it was, at first the faintest touch of it, then the power ebbed, flowed through him, like the waves gently crashing against the cliffs below. He thought of Luke's face, when he was an uncle, when he was a master, when he was a sworn enemy.

_Come back._

Rey gripped his hand tighter, and he breathed out sharply. The feeling crested, dipped, threatened to overwhelm him as his fear took hold and yanked him from the feel of waves into that of a sheer drop. He felt himself sinking, at first mentally, then physically beginning to buckle as the Dark Side took hold, but then Rey was there, her free hand in a hard slap across his face while the other gripped his like an intent companion's. He stumbled back, stared at her numbly as the Force rolled through them both, and finally spoke, his voice low.

"What do we do now?"

She released a slow breath, then pulled a knife from her belt. "Your blood," she said, "matters more than mine. I think. But just to be safe." She looked at her wrist and drew the knife across it, blood dripping down her arm as she offered the knife to him.

He looked down at the knife. He had done worse in service to worse causes. He took it, and without hesitation drew it across his wrist.

"Don't ignore the pain," she said. "Don't let yourself go numb, Ben. You have to experience it all for it to work."

"I don't understand." He wanted to forget the pain. He was good at that.

"We offer balance to the Force tonight." Rey's voice quavered. "We experience pain. We experience joy. The balance of existence. Life, death, joy, pain."

"I see." It didn't hurt. Much. He just hadn't registered pain in years. "What now?"

"Joy." She took a slow breath, seconds from inhale to long exhale. She turned to him and released his hand, taking his face into her hands and pressing a kiss to his mouth.

The slap had surprised him less. He didn't know what to do, at first, maybe at all, leaning into the kiss as best he could. His wrist hurt, but, as they broke, he ached for the contact even more than that. He struggled for words, but he couldn't think of any; instead, he kissed her, doing his best, needing this, her, more than he ever had in Snoke's throne room.

The Force still moved through them at each touch, and every touch felt that much more intense and beyond real. Her fingers in his hair drew a shudder through him, and his hands carefully exploring up her sides and down her hips made her release a sound into his mouth. That. He wanted more of that. He wanted her as beautifully helpless as he felt.

Rey backed him against the rocks of the alcove, and his fingers gripped into the bare skin he found between her shirt and trousers; he could feel something in her flutter, through the Force, through some connection, through the closeness of their bodies, he didn't know. His hand sought behind her neck and he turned her with a firm shift against the rocks instead, pressing his hips to hers.

"Ben," she murmured into his lips.

"I've never."

"It's fine." Rey's mouth was warm and perfect and hers, and he kissed her again. She hopped and wrapped her legs around his hips, her arms around his neck, to match each movement of his hips. He made a desperate sound into her mouth as his cock stiffened, and she made a soft approving sound low in her throat that overwhelmed him completely. He broke the kiss and said, barely audibly, "Rey – "

"Do you want to?" she answered softly.

He knew he did. He knew he'd wanted to for a very long time, and she saw it in his face. She hastily undid his trousers and he pushed hers down until they were down to her boots. He picked her up again and she shifted his cock so it would slip inside of her, her legs wrapping around him again.

He had never had sex, so he had no frame of reference for if it was genuinely this incredible with or without the intervention of the Force between them, but it almost broke him. She was soft and tight around his cock, but it was her face, the thrum of _something_ from the touch of bare skin to bare skin, and the desperation of each kiss that sent him reeling. He groaned and gripped her hips harshly as he tried to take in everything with each thrust.

"Ben," she said, a strangled, happy sound, and he kissed her as fiercely as he had ever done anything. He knew he couldn't hold out much longer – already he was feeling jabs of ecstasy – but he tried as hard as he could with each movement to make her feel as much as he was in that moment. Finally he couldn't resist and buried his face into her neck as he thrust again, again, and came inside her.

"Oh," Rey managed, breaths short, and he kissed her softly, though he cursed his weakness. She smiled after, and he moved so they could fix their clothes.

"Don't dress on my account."

He turned hurriedly, hand on his lightsaber, but there in the rectangle Rey had drawn stood Luke, looking just as the day Kylo Ren had killed him. Before he could react, Rey rushed to him and touched his arm carefully.

"I'm physically here," Luke said directly, looking to Rey. "Which is… confusing. What did you two do?"

"That's not important," Rey answered. "What's important is we need you."

"Rey, you've never _needed_ me," Luke said with a sigh. "Didn't you listen to a single thing I said?"

"Luke," Ben said softly.

In front of Luke, he was Ben. He had always been Ben to Luke, even when the Dark Side had raged through him. Maybe there was no point denying it.

Luke looked at him, and his gaze softened. Ben didn't deserve that look. He felt something crack inside of him, the Force still sweeping through him and heightening each emotion and touch, and he crossed the distance between them to meet Luke halfway for an embrace.

"Don't hate me," Ben choked out, a tear slipping down his face, then another. "I was… angry, I was weak, I was afraid – "

"I never hated you," Luke said softly. "Not for a moment."

Letting himself cry was nearly the hardest thing he had ever done, and he couldn't bear it for long. The embarrassment felt palpable, but neither Rey nor Luke seemed to care when he pulled himself away.

Luke took a heavy step back, then, and gripped tightly at his stomach with a grimace. "Oh, come on," he groaned. "What now?"

"It's not done yet," Rey spoke up grimly. "We need to complete it."

"Complete what?" Luke asked, eyebrows raised.

"What do we need to do," Ben said, tone clipped.

"Anchor him," Rey said, with more certainty than she possibly could have had. "Pain and joy and the Force. All the same."

"What are we doing?" Luke checked.

Ben glanced at Rey as the reality set in, then focused on Luke. "You know I loved you," he said.

"And I loved you." Luke cringed in pain. "As I do now. What are we doing?"

"I wanted you, Luke," Ben forced out. "As sick as it felt. I wanted you."

Luke's gaze stayed tight on him, now. "I understand," he said, his breaths coming harsher through pain. "I think. Ben…"

"It can't be you," Ben said to Rey, barely looking away from Luke. "It has to be me."

"Do it," Rey said, to the point.

Ben went to Luke and touched his face before kissing him. It was very different from Rey, but Luke called on the Force just the same and it was the same sort of rush. They fumbled into the ground and the past tried to cry out in him, _this is your uncle, your master_ , but that wasn't important right now. What was important was making sure the Force knew this was good and real, and that Luke was loved and needed.

Luke's pain seemed to subside as they kissed, until he was hungrily feeling under Ben's shirt and groping at his cock. It had only been minutes since his time with Rey, but he already felt the oversensitivity of the Force – and the culmination of his stupid childish fantasies – stimulating him back into the start of hardness.

"Ben," Luke murmured into his neck. "I thought I would never…"

"Enough," Ben grunted, and fumbled his hand into Luke's trousers. He had dreamed of Luke's cock in his hand, in his mouth, as a stupid Padawan, so he didn't hesitate to grip and stroke until finally pulling down his trousers and getting a real chance to touch his master's cock.

"Oh," Ben heard Rey murmur from behind them, just barely, through the rush of the Force between them. He worked Luke's cock over and over until Luke gasped, then sank down between Luke's legs and wrapped his mouth around his cock.

Luke groaned, and guided Ben carefully on each movement until he murmured, "That's right, that's right" and thrust gently into his nephew's mouth. Ben's eyes fluttered closed as he felt something different than Rey but just as incredible blooming in his chest.

"On your back."

It was Rey. Ben opened his eyes and paused, then at the look on her face he obeyed and rested on his back. Luke immediately shifted to kneel over his chest and Ben stroked his cock before pulling it into his mouth to keep on pleasuring him.

What Ben wasn't expecting – and, at first, barely registered – was Rey opening up his trousers again. Her hand stroked his cock again and again, to near hardness, and he moaned around Luke's cock as she began to suck his cock.

The heat of Rey's mouth around his cock and the firm thrust of Luke's cock into his mouth made Ben shudder with pleasure, and he focused as hard as he could to keep this going as long as possible. He did each motion, every slip of the tongue the way Luke had guided him, until Luke was thrusting hard inside his mouth, groaning. Come gushed into Ben's mouth, and he swallowed as Luke moved to his side.

Rey still worked Ben's cock hard with her mouth, and he thrust helplessly, overwhelmed, until Luke whispered, "She'll get you there, just take it in."

"Oh," Ben gasped, and dug his nails into the dirt beneath him.

"Mmm," Rey hummed around his cock, and it was nearly too much.

"Ngh," Ben grunted, and Luke stroked his cheek. The expression on his face as Ben looked up into it was too much, and Rey's lips slipped over the tip of his cock at just the right moment to make him thrust hard into her mouth and come with a jerk.

Rey wiped her mouth as she moved, then she handed Luke the knife. "Pain," she said.

"Pain," Luke supposed, and revealed his wrist. He cut into it, exhaling, then handed it off to her. "Well, the pain is gone."

"I think you're here," Rey said, and a little smile crossed her face. "Are you here to help?"

"I don't think I have much of a choice," Luke answered, with a wry smile of his own.

Ben breathed out hard. "I'm not sure what just happened," he said flatly.

"Do up your trousers," Rey said idly. "We're going inside."

Ben shifted and hurriedly did up his trousers. "Luke," he started.

"We can talk about it later," Luke said. "I'd like to eat. Could you go for some food?"

"Definitely," Rey agreed.

It was surreal. But Luke was back, and that was what mattered. Ben straightened. "Then let's go."

Luke and Rey nearly wore the same smile. Ben wasn't ready yet. He wasn't even sure he was Ben yet. But there was time enough for that. There was time enough for everything to come.


End file.
